


Broken Pledge

by hardboiledbaby



Category: Sherlock Holmes & Related Fandoms, Sherlock Holmes - Arthur Conan Doyle
Genre: Community: watsons_woes, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-11
Updated: 2015-07-11
Packaged: 2018-04-08 19:18:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 251
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4316634
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hardboiledbaby/pseuds/hardboiledbaby
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It is a man's lot in life to suffer.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Broken Pledge

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the Watsons_Woes 2015 July Writing Prompts Challenge, prompt #9 - _Healer's Choice: One person Watson chose not to save._

I have tried to do what I can to ease the physical suffering of others. Medicine is a noble profession, is it not? My calling. By it, I had hoped to do some good in the world. I swore by Apollo and by Aesculapius that I would tend to the sick, I pledged to Hygeia and Panacea that my patients would not suffer hurt nor damage while in my care.

Such hubris. It is a man's lot in life to suffer. Young or old, rich or poor, we are none of us exempt from sickness and injury, from the 'time and chance' which happeneth to us all.

"Please," she murmured, "John, please." A fresh wave of pain took what little breath remained in her lungs, and she clutched my hand as tightly as she could. I held onto her, helpless.

Mary's pregnancy had kept her confined to bed rest, but she had been fine and in cheerful spirits when I left the house that morning. When I returned, I found her, crumpled and in fierce agony, at the bottom of the stairs. 

When she could speak again, it was in the faintest of whispers. "Please.... The baby, John. Save him."

I bent over our clasped hands. In her weakened condition, she knew already, I think, and had abandoned hope for herself. But the child—

"Save him." 

It was nearly three months too early. 

"I will," I lied. She smiled faintly and closed her eyes.

I waited. They did not open again.


End file.
